I’m back from a short canoe trip on a small lake just an hour’s drive from our house. The weather was warm & dry, the conversation lively, the food delicious (despite not catching any fish) and we only had to flee from the mosquitoes around dusk. Here’s what’s coming across
Continue readingTag: shell
DeSmogBlog: Texas Refineries And Chemical Plants Releasing Tens Of Thousands Of Tons Of Pollution
gas-emissions_1.jpg A damning new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) reveals some startling information regarding pollution in the state of Texas. According to the report, oil refineries and chemical plants in the state are releasing tens of thousands of tons of pollution every year, without as much as a
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Fine Example of Culture Jamming
The Yes Men are at it again and this time with Greenpeace to show how efficient Shell is….at killing all of us. They created a website called Arctic Ready that looks like Shell is looking for crowd sourced advertising content, and of course, people around the net have submitted some
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2012-07-16 20:07:00
ENVIRONMENT: A TASTE OF SHELL GAMES TO COME IN THE ARTIC: Shell Loses Control Of Arctic Drilling Rig In Alaskan Harbor By Climate Guest Blogger on Jul 16, 2012 at 12:23 pm Photo: Teresa Derrick-Laxfoss by Kiley KrohRoyal Dutch Shell’s preparedness to drill offshore in the harsh and remote
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Romney, Obama Surrogates Spar Over Energy Policy
energy vote.jpg On Wednesday of this week, representatives from both the Obama and Romney campaigns debated issues of energy and environment, where the two campaigns’ differences on issues ranging from renewable energy subsidies to approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline were on full display. Speaking for the Obama campaign, spokesperson
Continue reading350 or bust: #EpicFail At Shell’s Arctic Launch Celebration
Via Occupy Seattle, a close-up glimpse at the folks our governments are trusting to keep our Arctic pristine and untouched. They can’t even run a launch party without a spill: * Occupy Seattle’s website says that Logan Price, a Seattle Occupier who’s now living in New York, managed to infiltrate
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: TransCanada’s Latest Extreme Energy Export Pipelines in the U.S. and Canada
shutterstock_48011347.jpg TransCanada was once in the limelight and targeted for its Keystone XL pipeline project. Now, with few eyes watching, it is pushing along two key pipeline projects that would bring two respective forms of what energy geopolitics scholar Michael Klare calls "extreme energy" to lucrative export markets. Pipeline one: the southern
Continue reading350 or bust: My Country?
Inspired by images of Tahltan women blockading Shell in defense of the Sacred Headwaters in northern British Columbia, Rachelle Van Zanten wrote ‘My Country’. She was invited to perform it for the Tahltan people at the Iskut Music Festival a year later, where this video was filmed. One of the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Big Oil Rakes In Billions, Still Complains Taxes Are Too High
20080810-violin.jpg The President rolled out his FY2013 budget recently, which includes eliminating $40 billion in tax breaks from Big Oil companies, such as BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute's response would have you believe that cutting the subsidies would be the equivalent of moving back
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: U.S. Chamber Hits The Road To Promote "Oily" Highway Transportation Bill
us_chamber_of_commerce_0.jpg A bitter fight has erupted in Washington, D.C. in recent weeks surrounding the fate of a much-needed transportation and infrastructure bill. Congressional Democrats wanted to pass a bill that would fund projects to help rebuild roads and bridges, but Republicans were against the idea. So, in an attempt to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: China Looks To Stephen Harper For Lessons In Dirty Energy Exploitation
oilyleaf.jpg Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in China this week to meet with Chinese leaders about how both countries can profit big by exploiting China’s shale gas reserves, as well as by importing Canadian tar sands oil. Harper is scheduled to meet with both Chinese officials, as well as
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: ExxonMobil and Shell Eyeing North American LNG Export Deals
LNG Export.jpg Yesterday, LNG World News reported that ExxonMobil Vice President Andrew Swiger announced, at a conference hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, that it was actively seeking LNG (liquefied natural gas) export terminals throughout North America, including, but not limited to, in British Columbia and on the Gulf Coast. “In terms of
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: ExxonMobil and Shell Stamp Huge Oil and Gas Deals in Iraq
Rumaila Oil Field Explosion.jpg Just a few weeks after President Barack Obama announced U.S. troops are "leaving" the war-torn country, ExxonMobil and Shell each announced major new oil and gas production agreements in Iraq. On November 12, ExxonMobil signed an oil production deal with the Kurdish Regional Government to drill in Iraqi Kurdistan, located
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Gas Industry Geologists – Not Doctors – Decide If Water Is "Safe" in Alberta Fracking Contamination Cases
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Water contamination is at the heart of the fracking debate. Gas companies and their well-funded industry support groups (still) adamantly contend that &l…
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Big-Oil Monopolies Engage in Price-Gouging
Last week Exxon-Mobil announced their 2011 third-quarter earnings, reporting $10.3 billion in profits, which is an increase of 41 percent from the same period last year. So far, Exxon has earned over $31 billion in profits in the first nine months of the year. It needs to be noted that
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Big-Oil Monopolies Engage in Price-Gouging
Last week Exxon-Mobil announced their 2011 third-quarter earnings, reporting $10.3 billion in profits, which is an increase of 41 percent from the same period last year. So far, Exxon has earned over $31 billion in profits in the first nine months of the year. It needs to be noted that
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: Big-Oil Monopolies Engage in Price-Gouging
Last week Exxon-Mobil announced their 2011 third-quarter earnings, reporting $10.3 billion in profits, which is an increase of 41 percent from the same period last year. So far, Exxon has earned over $31 billion in profits in the first nine months of the year. It needs to be noted that Exxon-Mobil is also one of the big five big-oil companies that spends the most money muddying climate-change science – to add to their long list of egregious behaviour.
The people at Shell are also onto good times. Royal Dutch Shell announced their 2011 third-quarter earnings, announcing profits of $6.98 billion, like Exxon-Mobil more than double their profits posted a year ago, bringing their total profits for 2011 to over $21 billion.
In fact he big 5 oil companies have made $102.85 billion in profits since January 1. The massive increase in oil company profits year in and year has nothing to do with market forces but with good old fashioned monopolistic price-gouging. A report from the CFA (Consumer Federation of America) says:
The spike in oil prices has not been caused by natural market supply and demand. In fact, U.S. demand for oil has declined since 2005, while global demand has grown less than 4 percent. In addition, global oil reserves have been growing faster than consumption and the reserve-to-consumption ratio now stands at a higher level than it has been in a quarter of a century. Today, OPEC spare capacity is almost three times as great as it was in 2008.
The CFA also estimates that crude oil is about $30 a barrel higher than costs or historic trends justify, which generates needlessly high prices for petroleum products that drains about $200 billion out of the US economy.
The reason for this is speculators buy and sell as much oil as possible to make quick and easy profits. Speculators might trade a barrel of oil more than 20 times before it is ever used – the price going up with each speculative trade, and consumers picking up the final tab.
And let me close by reminding you that this kind of unregulated speculation has everything to do with what the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about::
Lobbyists and special interests (have) used their influence in Washington, D.C. to weaken regulations on oil trading. For example, in 2000, Enron convinced Congress to overhaul 60-year-old commodities rules that formerly provided checks and balances on oil speculation. This loophole allowed speculators to manipulate and potentially corner the market.
Wouldn’t it be great if governments paid as much attention to consumer groups as to lobbyists from big-oil and Wall Street? Maybe if they could afford to ante up the same kinds of bribes they’d be listened to.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Commonwealth Business Council Picks In-house Denier To Chair Climate Forum
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IF you were going to have a serious high-level discussion about, say, improving science teaching in schools, then who would you invite to chair the meeting?
How about an astrologer? …